BSG: It could've ended so much better.
I've had half a day to digest the final episode of BSG...
I'm left thinking, "this is the way they chose to end the show?"
I loved season 1 and season 2. They were filled with action, good storytelling, compelling characters.
Season 3 was mostly slow and seemed like filler. Believe me, I defended the character development used in season 3 to friends who felt the series was already failing, but even I couldn't deny it was a weaker season.
Season 4 started off well, but quickly took a nosedive.
Reasons why I have issues with this whole thing:
Cavill wanted to end the war because he was offered resurrection? C'mon. He was gung-ho to kill all humans when they had resurrection before. He was a machine with a psychopath's rationality, intent on rejecting all aspects of humanity. Suddenly, he *cares* about his own life to give up his agenda of machine perfection? And maybe I missed something, but didn't a previous episode mention that one place they COULD still resurrect was at the colony? Y'know, that place Galactica just found Cavill.
Starbuck is a what? I thought they'd use that whole Daniel plot point to say she was actually the first cylon/human hybrid, that Daniel escaped death and lived with humans until discovered. It would explain why her father just disappeared. It would possibly explain her resurrection. It would explain her artistic side. it would explain why she was the only human to hear "All along the watchtower". Apparently though, Daniel was nothing but a footnote added for no apparent reason.
All this "act of god" bull? C'mon. God is a lame plot manoeuvre. Especially when used to explain spontaneous human generation on the other side of the universe. I'd expect "god" from Glen A. Larsen. Angels? I liked the idea that Baltar was *really* crazy; racked with guilt and hallucinating.
How exactly did a Bob Dylan song end up 150,000 years in the past, shaping the destiny of three races? It felt weird them using the song to begin with, but there was still no explanation even to the end. I thought it was a harbinger of what would happen. I thought, especially after the "Eye of Jupiter" and "Maelstrom" episodes, that Galactica would end up finding a wormhole into Cylon-Earth's past, which ends up being *our* present. Humanity would later leave the planet to colonize the stars, namely Kobol. It would go well in explaining "All Along the Watchtower" references; it would give our Galactees a place to live that's free of cylons, and it would completely explain the "all this has happened before and it will happen again". It would also be a bit of a funny nod to Galactica '80, that lame spin-off of the original BG series that took place in modern-day times.
But noooooo. That would be too simple.
Instead, we were given flashbacks that seemed incredibly long and irrelevant.
Then, we get Chief killing Tory. Okay, sure. He killed her. And no-one stopped him? No-one jailed him? They all just let it happen and no-one said a thing. I know the writers wanted him to get his revenge, but they could have had Chief see the memories of Calli getting killed, and later shown Tori dead in a cabin on Galactica as it was sent towards the sun. The audience would know who did it.
The main cast members splitting off into their own directions? It felt contrived. Adama wandering off, never to see his son or "daughter" again? It seemed vastly out of character.
Starbuck just disappearing? Huh? This made no sense whatsoever. If they wanted to leave us wondering exactly what she was, don't make her disappear in the middle of an open plain. This suddenly removes the possibility that she is actually human.
39,000 people deciding unanimously to give up all aspects of technology to live like primitives? *sigh*
I mean, I wanted to like it. I really did. It all just seemed so contrived; like a bunch of executives fired all the writers and made up an ending just to get it over with.
I'm sad, because I once loved that show.
I'm left thinking, "this is the way they chose to end the show?"
I loved season 1 and season 2. They were filled with action, good storytelling, compelling characters.
Season 3 was mostly slow and seemed like filler. Believe me, I defended the character development used in season 3 to friends who felt the series was already failing, but even I couldn't deny it was a weaker season.
Season 4 started off well, but quickly took a nosedive.
Reasons why I have issues with this whole thing:
Cavill wanted to end the war because he was offered resurrection? C'mon. He was gung-ho to kill all humans when they had resurrection before. He was a machine with a psychopath's rationality, intent on rejecting all aspects of humanity. Suddenly, he *cares* about his own life to give up his agenda of machine perfection? And maybe I missed something, but didn't a previous episode mention that one place they COULD still resurrect was at the colony? Y'know, that place Galactica just found Cavill.
Starbuck is a what? I thought they'd use that whole Daniel plot point to say she was actually the first cylon/human hybrid, that Daniel escaped death and lived with humans until discovered. It would explain why her father just disappeared. It would possibly explain her resurrection. It would explain her artistic side. it would explain why she was the only human to hear "All along the watchtower". Apparently though, Daniel was nothing but a footnote added for no apparent reason.
All this "act of god" bull? C'mon. God is a lame plot manoeuvre. Especially when used to explain spontaneous human generation on the other side of the universe. I'd expect "god" from Glen A. Larsen. Angels? I liked the idea that Baltar was *really* crazy; racked with guilt and hallucinating.
How exactly did a Bob Dylan song end up 150,000 years in the past, shaping the destiny of three races? It felt weird them using the song to begin with, but there was still no explanation even to the end. I thought it was a harbinger of what would happen. I thought, especially after the "Eye of Jupiter" and "Maelstrom" episodes, that Galactica would end up finding a wormhole into Cylon-Earth's past, which ends up being *our* present. Humanity would later leave the planet to colonize the stars, namely Kobol. It would go well in explaining "All Along the Watchtower" references; it would give our Galactees a place to live that's free of cylons, and it would completely explain the "all this has happened before and it will happen again". It would also be a bit of a funny nod to Galactica '80, that lame spin-off of the original BG series that took place in modern-day times.
But noooooo. That would be too simple.
Instead, we were given flashbacks that seemed incredibly long and irrelevant.
Then, we get Chief killing Tory. Okay, sure. He killed her. And no-one stopped him? No-one jailed him? They all just let it happen and no-one said a thing. I know the writers wanted him to get his revenge, but they could have had Chief see the memories of Calli getting killed, and later shown Tori dead in a cabin on Galactica as it was sent towards the sun. The audience would know who did it.
The main cast members splitting off into their own directions? It felt contrived. Adama wandering off, never to see his son or "daughter" again? It seemed vastly out of character.
Starbuck just disappearing? Huh? This made no sense whatsoever. If they wanted to leave us wondering exactly what she was, don't make her disappear in the middle of an open plain. This suddenly removes the possibility that she is actually human.
39,000 people deciding unanimously to give up all aspects of technology to live like primitives? *sigh*
I mean, I wanted to like it. I really did. It all just seemed so contrived; like a bunch of executives fired all the writers and made up an ending just to get it over with.
I'm sad, because I once loved that show.